Annette
Carlozzi’s photograph on
the inside jacket cover of her book, 50 Texas Artists, still accurately
describes her. She is a dark-haired, pale-eyed, attractive woman. The book was
published in 1986 as she was completing her seventh year as senior curator of
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, just before Carlozzi and her husband, writer Tom
Zigal, left for Aspen, where she became director of the Aspen Art Museum.
Several years later, she was named Executive Director of the Contemporary Art
Center in New Orleans and then was appointed Visual Arts Producer for the 1996
Olympics Arts Festival. Now Carlozzi has returned as Curator of Contemporary
Art for UT’s Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery. If anyone has the credentials to
evaluate the changes 10 years have brought to this city’s art scene, this woman
does — and she’s also an old friend — so I invited her to lunch.
At first, she demurred, saying she had only the most preliminary of
impressions to offer, that she’d spent most of her first month in Austin fixing
up their first house, settling her son in school, visiting friends and family.
I want your gut reaction, I assured her, even pre-preliminary
impressions are fine. When she began by talking about how much she has enjoyed
The Austin Chronicle‘s cultural coverage, I thought my editor might even
pay for the meal.
Annette Carlozzi: In Atlanta we had very little if any first-person reporting,
so it was great to come here and read the Olympic Diaries of five Austin acts
that performed in Atlanta’s Centennial Park (The Austin Chronicle, Vol.
15, No. 50, August 16, 1996). I read it from the perspective of the producer,
wondering how they felt they were treated but also trying to imagine how it
would be if it was my only window on the Olympics. The places I’ve lived since
I left Austin have not had serious, incisive reporting on culture and
entertainment in their alternative newspapers, but in the Chronicle the
writing is really smart. It’s not separated from the rest of the paper as if
the right brain were something so exotic it had to be separated from the rest
of life. It’s really refreshing.
Austin Chronicle: The Olympic exhibition at Atlanta’s High Museum (“Rings: Five
Passions in World Art”) that was curated by J. Carter Brown (former Director,
now Director Emeritus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.) got
lots of critical coverage, nationally and internationally. Did you help plan
the exhibition? What did you think of it? Did it deserve the criticism?
Carlozzi: Yes, yes, and yes. (Laughter.) My role as producer of the visual arts
program was to coordinate all the art exhibitions that we had coming into town
and also to commission works of public art. I represented the Olympic interest
in the co-development of the “Rings” project, but the staff of the High
Museum was experienced enough to do the show without needing my help. I had the
opportunity and the privilege, really, of sitting in at all the organizational
meetings.
The exhibition was a really fine collection of works drawn together in a novel
way. The installation design allowed the works to be considered individually.
And I think it deserved the critical response it got. I wasn’t defensive about
the criticism. But I don’t know that Carter felt that way….
AC: It drew huge crowds, right?
Carlozzi: I don’t know that every day was a record breaker, but there were
times when there were lines around the block.
AC: You interfaced not only with Carter Brown, but an international array of
artists. Commissioning the Olympic torch by Siah Armajani was one of your
projects — the big opening and closing Olympic shot on TV! That’s heady
stuff.
Carlozzi: It doesn’t matter what the context is. When you commission work, it’s
always the same. You just bring yourself and your set of observations to the
experience every time, and artists give you theirs. But there was a moment
during the presentation when things got heady in an extraordinary way. During
the Olympic period, it was exciting to see the exhibitions, the public artworks
out in the street available to people. I got to do a national media tour for
two days in a bus. They were really excited to see things they hadn’t seen
before. But by and large, it was still very personal, very intimate. It was
never, `5,000 people today talked to me about what they think.’ It was about
the three people I stopped on the street and asked what they thought.
AC: What was the response to Betty Saar’s “Spirit Chairs”? (In June, Saar
interrupted her work on the Olympic project to come to Austin’s Women &
Their Work Gallery for the opening of her exhibition.)
Carlozzi: People were really struck with the work, even though it was on a very
intimate scale, about the size a real chair would be. Each was put in a
location where the surrounding environment created an intimate space — city
parks and the university campus. They were discovered rather than encountered.
One of them was vandalized. Twice. It finally stopped. Whoever was doing it
made their peace with it, I guess. Anyway, what I liked about her work was that
it was so intimate compared to the monumentality of some of the other works.
AC: While you were off in Atlanta, did you stay in touch with your colleagues
around Texas? Do you know the names of the current players?
Carlozzi: No, I have some catching up to do. My work with the Olympics was very
focused.
AC: Well, everyone in Texas seems to be in a building or adding-on mode — the
Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, even the
Dallas Museum of Art is thinking of expanding again. Is this because Texas is
somehow behind the rest of the country when it comes to great arts
institutions?
Carlozzi: Not at all. The Kimbell Museum and the Menil Collection still
represent the best in wonderfully understated museum design.
AC: And in Austin we’re trying to change everything at once — again. Do you
have a sense of d�j� vu with both the University Museum and the
Austin Museum of Art (AMOA, formerly Laguna Gloria Art Museum) planning new
buildings?
Carlozzi: Yes, a little bit. Although I know that in the intervening decade,
there was a real slump for awhile. I’m glad to see that they’re all moving
forward again.
AC: When you left 10 years ago, Sandra Gregor was head of TFAA (Texas Fine Arts
Association), Chris Cowden had been at W&TW (Women & Their Work) for
about a year, Jessie Hite worked at the Huntington, but not as director.
Carlozzi: A lot of the players were the same, but their roles were
different. There are a lot of similarities, but I see all the institutions as
having gone through a lot of change, too, in the last 10 years. The challenge
for me is learning who the institutions are now and not assuming they are who
they used to be.
AC: The AMOA is moving downtown into a temporary space again.
Carlozzi: Yes, that was surprising for me. I’d been paying closer attention to
TFAA’s move downtown. I just hope AMOA stays there long enough to get their
feet on the ground, to establish a strong downtown presence and constituency
for the new building.
AC: Do you think it’s a good idea?
Carlozzi: I think it’s a smart move [as long as they] stabilize and mass their
resources so they can move to the next step. It will take awhile to establish
that presence. They should take their time. That’s just my opinion. I’m excited
for them. A lot of institutions seem to be anticipating big changes in the next
couple of years. That’s exciting, risky, nerve-wracking. It’s a little scary to
think that everybody’s doing it at the same time. It’s been so long in the
planning stages, I only hope the momentum is backed by some serious commitments
by fundraisers so the plans can be realized.
Let me ask you something. Have you seen Patricia Johnson’s book,
Contemporary Art in Texas? [Published last year, the book features 48
artists from around the state, selected by the Houston Chronicle art
critic.] I haven’t seen it yet.
AC: I brought a copy with me so we could compare. (Carlozzi starts perusing the
contents page intently.)
Carlozzi: She had the freedom to include artists who lived outside Texas that I
didn’t have — Terry Allen, John Alexander, Mel Chin. I thought of them.
AC: People say there’s a definite Houston bias in the Johnson book.
Carlozzi: And they said mine had an Austin bias.
AC: Did you try for a geographic balance?
Carlozzi: No, I started with 250 people and went out to see the work in studios
and galleries until I reduced the number to 70. Then I worried about how to get
from there to 50. The issues of [state-wide] balance weren’t ones I could
address. Gender and race couldn’t be addressed the way I wanted either. In my
mind, the more advanced work was being done predominately by white men, because
the opportunities for their work to mature were greater. I talked a little
about it in the introduction. Some day there will be a better degree of balance
there.
AC: You can see that to some extent in Johnson’s book. Some of her additions
are women, minorities. Who don’t you know on her list?
Carlozzi: Four artists.
AC: Amazing. Since you’ve been back in Texas, have you identified any potential
new art stars to watch?
Carlozzi: Not yet. But I’ve been looking very casually. Starting Monday, I put
on my hat of obsessive seriousness.
AC: Has there ever been a contemporary curator at the Huntington before?
Carlozzi: I don’t think so.
AC: So you’re inventing as you go?
Carlozzi: Yes, and that’s good. I’m going to study the exhibitions from the
last 10 years or so, just to see the range of things they’ve done, and look at
the interaction between the art history and studio departments and the museum
to see where the strengths and possibilities are there. I think the spirit of
the Michener Contemporary Art Collection is very powerful, very strong. To
extend that into the future makes a lot of sense.
AC: Is building a collection part of what you’re going to be doing for UT?
Carlozzi: The other curators, Mari Carmen Ramirez and Jonathan Bober, have
spent years successfully cultivating collectors and building the collection in
their areas. It’ll be a new task for me, hopefully one where I excel. I’ve
worked with collectors for years, of course, always as patrons and museum
supporters, and to borrow works from them. I hope to make a good start
vis-�-vis the debut of the new building.
AC: Will the new building bring new work to the collection?
Carlozzi: New buildings always do. There will be offers of things we don’t
think are appropriate and then there will be things that will help us create a
deeper collection, new directions as well.
Chronicle: When are we going to see the results of your curatorial skills at
the University?
Carlozzi: January 10, 1997.
AC: So soon! Which show is that?
Carlozzi: That’s the show that hasn’t been announced yet, because I’m still
working on the concept. There was a hole in the exhibition schedule.
AC: Stay tuned…. Are there any local artists you’ve known over the years who
have made particularly big strides in the last 10 years?
Carlozzi: No. And I was surprised to see, 10 years later, that so many of the
names on Patricia Johnson’s list are on mine — Melissa Miller, James Surls,
John Biggers, Luis Jim�nez.
AC: What does that indicate?
Carlozzi: It says that the artists who appear on both lists are still producing
good work. That not too many people moved away.
AC: Or else they came back. Like you. Are you here to stay?
Carlozzi: Yes, I thought I’d try something new for a change — staying put.
AC: That goes on the record, you know. I have it on tape.
After lunch, I scurried home to transcribe my recorded notes. Booming male
voices from the table next made it hard to decipher several exchanges, so I
called Carlozzi to fill in the gaps.
“You know when you asked me why I came back to Austin,” she said, “and I
didn’t give you a straight answer? Now I know what I should have said.” She
paused, and I waited for an explanation having to do with family members who
live nearby, a quality environment for her son, a community filled with old
friends and colleagues.
“I missed Eklektikos,” she said, referring to KUT-FM’s long-running
morning show with John Aielli. “I really did. That’s why I came back.”
Maybe I should ask John Aielli to pay for lunch. n
This article appears in September 27 • 1996 and September 27 • 1996 (Cover).